It wasn’t quite a tapping up of a player that has been linked with West Ham, but Hammers striker, Michail Antonio, did everything but.
Aside from the captures of Edson Alvarez and James Ward-Prowse, the east Londoners haven’t had the best transfer window this summer.
Much of that could be blamed upon the club’s hierarchy and management, given that they dialled and dallied until well after selling former captain, Declan Rice, to Arsenal before getting their act together.
Whether it was the board ensuring that they wanted the money in first or David Moyes not certain on which targets he required is a moot point.
One player that was heavily linked with the east Londoners is Man United’s former captain, Harry Maguire.
Though the move appears off at present, it could be revisited before the end of the transfer window, and Antonio has suggested that the England international, who earns £190,000 per week at United according to Capology, should consider leaving Old Trafford.
“I think he (Maguire) has another three years at Man United and West Ham aren’t paying his Man United money, so it’s like there is so much things behind the two clubs agreeing before the player can actually get to the club,” he said on the Footballer’s Football Podcast .
“[…] I feel like he is a quality player and I know once he gets his confidence back and people stop ripping into him and give him an opportunity to showcase himself again, I feel like he will actually do well.
“I just feel like it’s been more like – people just been bullying, I think it’s bullying basically. I’ll say it straight.
“How well and how quality the boy has been playing, to the stage where he’s now a shadow of himself, whereas before when he was at Hull and Leicester he was driving with the ball, beating people, finding passes but now he gets on the ball and he’s looking nervous when he was never that type of player.
“So I think possibly leaving United could make him better.”
Antonio himself could be leaving the Hammers with it rumoured – by The Times (subscription required) and others – that Saudi Arabian clubs have come calling, so his advice to Maguire might seem a little odd.
However, taken in context, Antonio hasn’t suggested the defender necessarily move to East London but take himself out of the firing line at Old Trafford.